Girls Versus Suits
Recap Future Ted again expounds on the unknowable nature of destiny, and tells the kids about the time he almost met their mother . After leaving class, he intercepts a series of frat boys inviting a woman up to the roof to drink. Confiscating the alcohol, he sits down to drink the beer with Cindy, a PhD student roughly his own age to whom he can relate. He asks her out on a date and when he comes to pick her up at her apartment, it turns out Cindy has serious issues with her roommate (who Future Ted reveals to be the Mother); her dates keep falling in love with her roommate, and her roommate's strange habits annoy Cindy. Ted promises Cindy to never fall in love with her roommate - something to which future Ted says, "oops." During the date, Cindy explains more about her roommate's strange habits which she dislikes but Ted secretly thinks are awesome. Cindy tells how the Mother paints pictures of robots playing sports and has breakfast foods singing show tunes. Future Ted reveals the painting of robots playing volleyball is still hanging in the house and that an English muffin singing "Memories" is the most hauntingly beautiful thing he has heard to this day. Even though she complains about her roommate throughout the evening, Ted wants to continue dating Cindy. After the date, Cindy tells Ted she can't see him again, blaming the University policy preventing students and lecturers from fraternizing, as she fears it could cost her her scholarship. At first Ted tries to rationalize her decision as being for the best, especially as the others point out that Cindy's future and Ted's job are in jeopardy. Ted is inspired to try again, and shows up at Cindy's apartment and tries to persuade her to go out with him again, unwilling to miss out on the chance of her being the right woman. She takes Ted to talk in her room as her roommate is just about to leave the shower. As he tries to convince Cindy that their paths are meant to cross, he picks out items from her room which show how much they have in common. Cindy reveals that all three objects are really connected to her roommate. Frustrated that Ted is already more compatible with her roommate, Cindy tells him to leave. Ted does not meet her roommate, although on his way out he does catch a glimpse of her foot, as she disappears into her bedroom. Ted forgets to take the yellow umbrella he brought with him, revealing how the Mother gets it back. MacLaren's has hired a hot female bartender, Karina, and Barney seeks to add her occupation to his list of conquests. But she doesn't like men in suits, having dated insensitive Wall Street losers. Barney is forced to choose between the girl and the suits. For a while he attempts to dress casually, convincing the hot bartender she misjudged him. He even sneaks away to the bathroom to wear his suit, where he accidentally rips the back. The suit is damaged beyond repair, but his tailor transplants the buttons to save another suit and Barney cremates the remains. Meanwhile, Lily, Marshall, and Robin argue about the bartender's hotness. Robin is jealous, and even gets behind the bar to show how the location amplifies natural beauty. Carl soon kicks her out from behind the bar. Marshall insists that the bartender is not that hot, saying that Lily is the most beautiful woman he has ever met. Lily tries to get Marshall to say that she is not as beautiful as the bartender, and eventually even implies that the bartender is hotter than Marshall, actually upsetting him a little. With the urn of suit ashes and his real tears for his lost suit, Barney convinces the hot bartender to go home with him. In his apartment Karina accidentally opens his closet full of suits and realizes he deceived her. She forces him to choose between her and his suits. The scene then transitions to a fantasy sequence, during which she is shown angrily leaving the building while Barney breaks into song, professing his love of suits. He explains how he couldn't possibly choose one women over his suits that give him so much. He fires beams of magic at people on the street, transforming everyone so that they too are wearing suits. They and the rest of the cast all join in as the song grows to a big Broadway song-and-dance number. The sequence ends and we return to the moment where she gave him the ultimatum, where this time he admits his doubts to himself, saying she is "pretty hot." He tells her she is more important than the suits and they will go first thing in the morning. As they fall into bed, he turns to his suits and whispers, "you guys are fine." Continuity *Ted mistakenly walked into an economics class he thought was his architecture class in . As revealed here, Cindy was also in that class. *Ted leaves the yellow umbrella behind in Cindy's apartment. Future Ted explains that this is how the mother got her umbrella back after losing it in . *Ted's love of bass-playing women, referenced in , and , is referenced again when he finds his future wife's bass guitar. *Robin is clearly jealous of the attention Karina receives, and when Ted asks Robin if she is upset about not getting attention as "the hottest girl in the bar", she giggles and says no, referencing her inability to lie without laughing, first shown in . *Lily once again reveals her bisexual tendencies, as she did in , and . *The list of occupations of girls that Barney has banged was first referenced in . Future References *Barney's overly emotional attachment to his clothes was last seen in , and is referenced again in . *In Definitions, Future Ted says he wouldn't have met the Mother if he hadn't started teaching at Columbia, as this is where he meets Cindy, through whom the Mother and her band get hired, in , to play at Barney and Robin's wedding, where Ted will finally meet her, as revealed in . *Ted tells Cindy that he teaches drunk all the time despite university policy forbidding it. He is seen doing this in . *Barney continues to use the jar of suit ashes to pick up women, as in , he tells Robin he has variously claimed it was his trophy from Wimbeldon and contained the ashes of his parents. Gallery Girls v suits - always in a suit.png|Never not in a suit Girls v suits - circumstancial hotness.png|Circumstantial hotness Girls v suits - barney misses suits.png|Barney misses suits Nothing suits me like a suit - gang.png|The gang suits up in Barney's mind Themothersfeet.jpg|Ted catches his first glimpse of The Mother Himym123.jpg Memorable Quotes Notes and Trivia Goofs and Errors *Barney claims not to have slept with a hot bartender before, however in he slept with Wendy the Waitress, who has been seen bartending on occasion but is only considered a waitress (as it says in her name). Technically, this would not be a mistake if Barney does not consider Wendy to be "hot", but considering how they were attracted to one another and slept together in , this is unlikely. Neil Patrick Harris even believed that line was "a bit of a lie" by the writers. http://au.tv.ign.com/articles/104/1046750p1.html *Marshall was rewarded with five slaps that he could give to Barney in . When Barney is being intimate with Marshall's suit, Marshall redeems one of his slaps so to speak. This could be considered the 5th and final slap, but in Marshall explains that one must slap the other as hard as he can. *During Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit near the end, during the dancing, Ted lags behind slightly in the dancing just after they wave to the deceased suit. *During the beginning to Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit, the girl who walks out annoyed at Barney has straight blonde hair, but Katrina has wavy hair the scene before. *The section of Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit where Barney sings "Picture a world where all the boys and girls are impeccably well-dressed" makes it clear that the scene was filmed on a back lot. Allusions and Outside References *The CD belonging to Cindy's roommate that Ted picks up when he is in Cindy's room is by . The book he picks up next is by . *When Barney mentions the professions of the girls he had sex with, the part "...A butcher, a baker, a candlestickmaker..." ''refers to the popular nursery rhyme ''Rub-a-dub-dub. *Ted works for . Cindy tells him that University policy prevents them from dating. According to Columbia University: "Consensual, romantic relationships between faculty and other employees and students and between individuals who work together are generally not considered sexual harassment and are not prohibited by University policy."http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsas/sub/policies/grievance/harassment/ *When Barney abandons wearing suits, he wears a t-shirt that has the image of the cover of the 1924 book Die neue Wohnung by the famous architect . *The suits speaking to Barney when he is taking out a t-shirt for that night is like the Basilisk talking to Harry Potter in Parseltongue in . *The scene when Barney is in the bathroom stall putting on his suit references the scene in when Vincent Vega ( ) is injecting himself with heroin, underscored by the fact that both scenes use the song "Bullwinkle Part II" by . *The scene when Barney sings and zaps people with a suit-ray resembles Neil Patrick Harris's character in . The cyan color of Barney's suit-ray also matches the color of Dr. Horrible's freeze-ray. *Ted describes the Mother's rendition of "Memories" as hauntingly beautiful. The song is " " from the musical . *When Ted asks out Cindy, her answer of "almost exclusively" is the same answer gets from a woman he asks out in the episode . Ted's question is "So, um, do you ever date cute idiots?" while Jerry's question was "So, um, do you date immature men?" Music *Bullwinkle Part II - * - *Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit - Neil Patrick Harris Other Notes *"Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit" was backed by seventy-five dancersHow I Met Your Mother Behind the Scenes at YouTube. Retrieved November 28, 2010 and accompanied by a fifty-piece orchestra. *International Airdates: Australia: April 22, 2010 on Channel 7; United Kingdom: August 12, 2010 on E4. *Karina's name is never mentioned on screen, but is revealed in the cast list. *This marks the 100th episode of the series. Guests * - Cindy * - Himself * - Karina *Joe Nieves - Carl MacLaren *Ryan Bailey - Herb *James Pumphrey - Frat Dude #1 *Christopher Scott - Dancer * - Beth Reception Donna Bowman of rated the episode with a grade A, describing the 100th episode as one of the best the show has ever produced. She describes the episodes as appealing to fans in a way that doesn't exclude other viewers, noting the quality of the writing and editing, the voiceover being used to great effect, and advancing the storyline for all the characters. http://www.avclub.com/articles/girls-vs-suits,36971/ Brian Zoromski of gave the episode 9.8 out of 10. http://au.tv.ign.com/articles/105/1059403p1.html Cindy McLennan of rated the episode with a grade A. http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/how_i_met_your_mother/girls_vs_suits_1.php Nickolas Clague of gave the episode 9.2 out of 10. http://nytimes.com/ The episode hit a season high with 9.82 million viewers and high overall ratings. References External Links * * * uk:Girls Versus Suits Category:Episodes Category:Season 5 Category:Who is the Mother?